EXPLODING INTEREST IN VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS: AN

Smart Lighting Annual Industry-Academia Days, February 13-15, 2012

EXPLODING INTEREST IN VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS:

AN APPLICATIONS VIEWPOINT

1

Pow!

Thomas Little Boston University


What is VLC?

The cup is half empty

The cup is half full

Current evidence of the overflowing cup

Final observations

OUTLINE: OPPORTUNITIES IN VLC

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WHAT IS VLC?

3


VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS

Time

Observer

Modulation and/or Dimming via toggling the lights

Luminaire

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Data! Light Intensity – “Baseband Modulation” (OOK, PAM, PPM)


Properties

•Secure

•Line of sight

•High density

•Free, unlicensed spectrum

•Not affected by RF-noise

•Mitigates RF health concerns

What’s it good for?

VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS

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Center-developed VLC transceiver


An enabling technology, NOT the main event

Use it it in communications -- Where LOS is important (good spatial reuse)

Where locality is important

As low cost – available – and opportune

For security, privacy

Exploits how we can control solid state light engines

Not ‘low power’ per se, but ‘free’ if used with lighting

VLC: What’s It Good For?

6


TYPICAL VLC SIGNAL CHAIN: INDOOR SCENARIOS

MCU/ Protocol Engine

MCU/Protocol Engine

VLC Transceiver

VLC Transceiver

Channel

Typically Overhead Lighting

Typically a Mobile or Embedded Device

“Downlink”

“Uplink”

Wired Internet

Device

“Free Space”

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Next: The Cup is Half Empty…


THE CUP IS HALF EMPTY

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“A solution looking for a problem”

“No industry demand looking for VLC”

“Many alternatives to using light to pass bits”

Consumers of wireless systems busy adopting to new 802.11ac and 802.11ad standards

No VLC products out there in the market/no contracts we are aware of

Technology ‘on the verge’

Lighting industry does not understand data comms

It will happen soon/don’t know when

Hard nut – going to market

HALF EMPTY

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“VLC won’t work in the dark – how can I stream and watch TV in the dark?”

“I can already do that with WiFi, right?”

“It won’t work if it’s raining or foggy” (outdoors)

“It’s not energy efficient”

“It’s not built into my laptop”

“I will see flicker”

“IRDA never took off, why will this?”

TO BOOT

10


THE CUP IS HALF FULL

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Rich ecosystem of international developers of VLC technologies

HALF FULL

12

VLC Ltd

LiFi Consortium

IEEE 802.15.7


HALF FULL

13


HALF FULL

LiFi “one of 50 best inventions of 2011”

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HALF FULL

15


HALF FULL

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Many have noted VLC will shine where other technologies cannot satisfy a need

•Near field communications (including cable replacement)

•When want to “Hide” communications or RF is not allowed

•High density wireless – spatial reuse

•Where Line of Sight (LOS) makes a difference

•Indoor GPS (indoor positioning)

HALF FULL

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NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATIONS

Home Media Server

Video Kiosks Opportunity: High-speed download of HD movies

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Download a DVD in seconds Exchange a DVD between mobiles

http://www.studiobriefing.net/2011/02/kiosks-replacing-video-stores/

Roku

Samsung Galaxy tab

NFC

NFC


“Hide” data Communication

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Continuous wireless telemetry of biodata from incident to hospital

Civilian

Defense

http://www.aircav.com/dodphoto/dod99/uh60-011.html

http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/first-responders.html


Underwater Communications

RF NOT FEASIBLE

Nakagawa Labs, Inc.


HIGH DENSITY WIRELESS

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• 500+ users • Severe contention for

WiFi • Common scenario in

classrooms, conference halls, other assembly spaces

Airbus


WHERE LINE OF SIGHT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

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Vehicle-to-vehicle communications

Safety critical latencies


INDOOR GPS

Indoors

Outdoors

Lights are the basis for indoor positioning

Augmented Reality using location

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Iphone app

http://www.qrcodepress.com


CURRENT EVIDENCE OF THE OVERFLOWING CUP

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GROWTH IN WIRELESS

Cisco’s Visual Network Index -- forecast the impact of modern apps

•Annual growth in IP traffic

•Gains in spectral efficiency

User demand is increasing faster than gains in spectral efficiency!

Use

r D

eman

d

Spec

tral

Eff

icie

ncy


Cisco VNI Forecast – Trends

By 2015, traffic from wireless devices is expected to exceed traffic from wired devices.

Most of these devices are used for fixed position wireless!


Cisco VNI Forecast – Trends Mobile video is expected to account for a majority of internet traffic in the upcoming years.

Video streaming is an ideal use for asymmetric channels.

These increases in network traffic require drastic changes in how we think of wireless communication.


VLC IS SET TO PROVIDE SCALE

E.g., Optical Wireless

30Mb/s Aggregate Bandwidth

RF Wireless

10 Mb/s 10 Mb/s 10 Mb/s

Shared Channel Dedicated Channels


FINAL OBSERVATIONS

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• Unique characteristics of light provide opportunities

• It’s not a race for speed (not a single dimension problem)

Sure fast is good

Cost, function & efficiency too

• Disruptive to RF-based businesses

• Opportunistic – piggybacks on lighting

• Part of ‘control’ infrastructure in immersive, adaptive lighting paradigm

FINAL OBSERVATIONS

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Controllable LED Lighting

Hotels/Casinos

Office Buildings

Stadiums/Arenas

High Density Communication

Conference Halls

Transportation Hubs

Convention Centers

Localization Services

Retailers

Hospitals

Warehouse

VLC APPLICATION OPPORTUNITIES

“Indoor GPS”

“Smart Grid Friendly Appliances”

“Streaming Video”

“Resource Tracking”

“Custom Lighting Control”

“Product Placement”

“Asset Analysis”

“Massive Energy Savings”

“Promotions”

“Advertisements”

“Smart Network”

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ERC EFFORTS

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1. Localized, high-data-rate communications, and adapting to the limitations of the medium

2. Low cost 3. Responsive low-latency interaction 4. Part of immersive lighting infrastructure

From NXP

GOALS IN THIS CONTEXT

Immersive Lighting

Indoor Navigation Personal Interaction with Lighting

Lighting as Wireless Access


COOPERATIVE VLC AND RF SYSTEM (ACCOMPLISHMENTS)

Rahaim, Little

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 450

2

4

6

8

10

Streaming Users

Av

erag

e D

elay

[m

s]

Wifi

VLC (4)

Hybrid (4)

Hybrid (8)

Analysis of the potential aggregate bandwidth in a cooperative system.

Wifi Saturates Early

due to the division

of bandwidth

Asymmetric VLC

shows improvement

due to spatial reuse

Cooperation offers full

utilization of the WiFi

and VLC channels Cooperation also

benefits from the

scalability of VLC!

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Analysis of the “lights off” problem shows that signal coverage can be achieved with very low emissions

from overhead lights, even in areas of the room with signal shadowing and high ambient noise

“Lights off” and Uplink VLC (T1.2.1) Borogovac, Rahaim, Tuganbayeva, Little

Daylight illuminance distribution

Overhead lights illuminance distribution

High ambient noise regions due to proximity to windows

Low signal regions due to shadowing of overhead lights

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0

1

2

3

4

0

1

2

3

4

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

x axis [meters]

Indoor Environment: 12 Luminaires and 169 Rx Positions

y axis [meters]

z a

xis

[m

ete

rs]

Signal of InterestLuminaire

Noise ContributingLuminaire

Discrete RxLocations

INDOOR LOCALIZATION (T1.2.3) Prince

Coarse Performance

finds closest

luminary to target,

with errors ~ 0.3 m

Fine Performance

improves upon Coarse

estimate if it can, if not

the estimate of location

is the Coarse estimate

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•Ganick, M. Figueroa, J. Lobo, P. Schimitsch, T. Rich, and T.D.C. Little, MobiSys 2010, demo and poster. • A. Agarwal and T.D.C. Little,. Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2010. • A. Agarwal and T.D.C. Little, IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference, 2009.

Automotive VLC transceiver

Contention with RF in V2V Communications (T1.2.3) Agarwal, Ganick, et al.


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VIDEO STREAMING WITH SDR TESTBED (T1.2.1) Rahaim, Borogovac, Mirvakili, Koomson, Little


Rick Roberts, Intel

Gordon Povey, D-Light (VLC, Ltd)

Walter Kraus, LiFi, IBSEN Tech

Sridhar Rajagopal, Samsung Electronics

Shinichiro Haruyama, VLCC

Dominic O’Brien, Oxford

Karl Jessen, Osram Sylvania

Eric Meulenkamp, Philips Research

Klaus-Dieter Langer, Fraunhofer

Mohsen Kavehrad, PSU

Aaron Ganick, Bytelight

PEOPLE QUERIED

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ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS

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Characteristics

• High Density

• Free, unlicensed spectrum

• Not affected by RF-noise

• Secure

• We are flooded with light anyway

• Mitigates RF health concerns

INDOOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS


Characteristics

• Many existing RF devices

• Security and privacy

• Patients

• Staff

• High value equipment

• Visually impaired (navigation)

Wireless Healthcare – Asset Tracking


Characteristics:

•Rich custom lighting environment

•Smartphones

•Behavior tracking of individual shoppers

•People—product—purchase linkage

•Value to consumers and retailers

RETAIL ANALYTICS


Characteristics

•Tracking, localization

•Harsh, hot environment

•Sometimes crowded RF environment

•Often clear LOS

•Self-provisioning

Use Case – Warehouse Control


Casinos:

• Rich lighting environment

• Ubiquitous video monitoring environment

• Video signal egress problem in the presence of crowded RF

Cabins (aircraft, auto)

•Moving ‘hotspots’ create dynamic contention problems (with other vehicles or fixed infrastructure)

•Isolate with VLC hotspots

MORE OPPORTUNITIES


Barrier Effort

Driving illumination grade LEDs at high speed Sources (S1.3)

Increasing data rate with parallelism/arrays High Data Rate (T1.2.1), Sources (S1.2.1), Sensors (S2.1)

Achieving low complexity/low cost modulation

Modulation (T1.2.2)

LOS characteristic of light/mobility Mobility (T1.2.3)

Seamless interoperability with other networks Mobility (T1.2.3)

Disruptive nature of VLC as a lighting product and a networking product

Translational Efforts

MAJOR BARRIERS IN VLC

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Three Markets Market Potential

Energy-efficient lighting

829 million installed downlights (US) [SSL Roadmap]

Wireless access and networking

350K femtocells (est. US), growth to 49M units (globally) by 2014 [Informa Telecoms&Media]. Compare to 260K macrocells today (US) 81 million installed WAPs (US) [Skyhook]

Smart grid control

$11B market for sensors and devices for smart grid applications, growing to $21.8B in 2014 (US) [SBI]

Why Relevant? What’s the Market?

EXPLODING INTEREST IN VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATIONS: AN

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